Feb 19 2025 50 mins
Wednesday, January 15, 2025 12 Noon WPKN 89.5 FM wpkn.org
We are in a time of change: climate, society, politics, technology: and buildings always adapt: but in the instant exposure of the Internet, is there anything “new” in how we conceive of buildings and architecture? Rather than performance (resilience, sustainability, energy efficiency) is there a different way building design approaches how humans as individuals and as cultures use now than in the 20th century?
Will the next homes just be “better”or will we rethink how we use them
Suburbia was not a personal or social reality before the full flower of The Industrial Revolution: will there be a new way we house ourselves?
Technology has always changed buildings, but buildings respond with what we know, not by rethinking design. Air Conditioning to reduce heat fully changed how buildings by sealing them and thus how humans interact with the climate. Cars ended how distance shaped communities, so distances between us spread and buildings increased in size to house them.
Wars and work and worship are leaving the baseline requirement of human gathering: Will the future create a baseline of isolation in how we inhabit our buildings and communities?
In times of discovery (the Renaissance and creation of America) humanity – cultures have completely embraced ancient, familiar aesthetics – Classical Rationalization of new ideas of culture. If the technological explosion is as changing, will we be looking to the pastas a way to feel safe in architecture when society is in radical change? How will our homes be affected?
Four great guests will help us: Martin Pedersen is a New York based writer, critic and editor and is the executive director of the Common Edge Collaborative, Todd Gould has been a broker/ owner/ realtor for 27 years, Leigh Whiteman Is The Whiteman Team at William Raveis Real Estate, and Clay Chapman is a design/build mason who founded “Hope for Architecture,” a structural masonry revival.